Research institutions can spot storm systems, epidemics and other critical patterns in their formative stages.

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"It's in the formative stages, " says Larry Thorpe , senior vice president of content creation at Sony.

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Their goal, one encouraged by Mr. Fincher, had been to stitch their music into the film in its formative stages.

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Incubators are designed to give a several startup companies a place to work and some degree of back-office support while they are in their most formative stages.

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